Onecom has vowed to continue to “lead consolidation within the UK business communications and IT services market” as it installed one of its co-founders as CEO.
The £220m-revenue outfit today announced it is elevating COO Aaron Brown to the CEO hotseat.
He will succeed Darren Ridge, who took over from Martin Flick following his departure last summer and will now return to a non-exec role on the OneCom board.
It is the latest in a flurry of senior leadership changes at the UK’s top channel partners in 2026, with Nasstar, Node4 and Roc Technologies all announcing new CEOs last week alone.
What’s going down with Brown?
Brown and Ridge together founded Onecom in 2013 following the merger of Premier Telecom and Business Phones Direct, with Brown rejoining the business as COO last June.
Counting Vodafone, Microsoft, Google, Mitel, Samsung, Apple, Gamma and Five9 among its key vendors and ranking 17th in Oxygen 250 2026, Onecom claims to serve 65,000 UK businesses and employ 900 staff.
Under PE backer LDC, the Hampshire-based outfit has gobbled up 14 businesses, including Olive Communications and Excalibur (see here).
With Brown at the helm, Onecom will “deepen integration across recent acquisitions”, scale its managed IT services capability and “continue to lead consolidation within the UK business communications and IT services market”, it pledged.
His appointment comes after Onecom debuted its new Agentic AI platform, Halo.
“Aaron has been instrumental in driving the business forward over the past year in his role as COO, and this appointment reflects the impact he is already having,” Ridge stated.
“With Halo launching and the business firmly back on the front foot, this is the right moment for him to lead Onecom into its next phase of growth.”
Brown added: “Onecom is in a strong position, with real momentum behind us. Our focus now is on accelerating growth, executing with pace, and scaling what we know works.”
